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Management of minutes is crucial to Bulls success

By Ashish Mathur

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The Chicago Bulls have a new head coach at the helm in Fred Hoiberg and he is inheriting one of the deepest and most talented rosters in the NBA. How he manages the minutes of the players will be critical to the success of the team.

Former coach Tom Thibodeau had a great five-year run with the Bulls, but the friction between him and the front office over players minutes grew too large, and thus Thibodeau was fired after the Bulls were eliminated from the playoffs. It was clear that the front office was tired of Thibodeau playing his star players too many minutes and not playing the younger players enough. General manager Gar Forman was not too happy that Thibodeau was playing center Joakim Noah and guard Derrick Rose heavy minutes after both were coming off knee surgeries.

Thibodeau is an old school coach and stuck to his motto that star players need to play heavy minutes in order to win games. The Bulls however have so much depth on their roster that there was no need to play guys like Rose, Jimmy Butler, Pau Gasol and Noah heavy minutes. The Bulls were always a great regular season team in Thibodeau’s five years as coach, however never went on deep playoff runs because the players were fresh out of gas. The players played too many minutes in the regular season and that affected their playoff performances.

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The biggest thing that ticked off Forman and vice president of basketball operations John Paxson, was how Thibodeau didn’t listen to them about players minutes and just did his own thing. Forman and Paxson had enough and were ready to move on to a different coach. Fred Hoiberg is the new man in charge and he will have to manage the players minutes much better than Thibodeau did for the Bulls to make a deep playoff run.

Butler led the NBA in minutes played during the 2014-15 season at 38.7 per game, and while he’s young and can handle the workload, it was unnecessary for him to play that much during the regular season. Tony Snell, who can shoot the ball well and defend at a high level, played sparingly during the season and that was a problem. Thibodeau should have played Snell more minutes to give Butler some rest and build up the confidence of Snell. It was almost like Thibodeau pulled Snell out of the game after one mistake and that is the worst way for a coach to build up the confidence of a young player. Snell had some decent games during the season and had a huge game 3 against the Bucks in the playoffs but still Thibodeau for some reason just didn’t trust Snell enough to play more.

Butler will most likely see similar minutes under Hoiberg, but hopefully Hoiberg will be better at managing back to back game minutes and have easier practices on the players. Thibodeau was known for having hard practices and some players were usually sore heading into games because of practice injuries. That can’t happen this year as the Bulls core is getting older and they need to be in tact for the playoffs.

The core of this team at the moment is Rose, Butler, Noah, Gibson and Gasol, and Hoiberg has to manage the minutes of these five players efficiently for the Bulls to succeed. Gasol averaged 34.4 minutes per game last season and that is too high for a guy who is 35 years old. Yes he played great last year, but was average in the playoffs until a hamstring injury forced him to sit out. He looked slow and fatigued from the regular season and that was due to the big minutes he played. Gasol just recently finished a dominant run at the FIBA Euro-basket tournament in which he was named MVP and led Spain to victory. Gasol reportedly was playing heavy minutes even though team doctors said that he shouldn’t have and that was a little concerning to me. As long as he rests and stays off his feet until training camp starts, he should be ready to start the season well. Hoiberg however will have to monitor his practice and game minutes since he’s coming off a long summer of basketball. Keeping him fresh all season and ready for the playoffs is the most important thing.

Joakim Noah played on a bum knee all of last season, and even though it was surgically repaired, it was clear that he wasn’t 100%. He never looked comfortable on the floor and was obviously hampered by his knee. Still, Thibodeau played Noah an average of 30.6 minutes a game, and even though Forman specifically told Thibodeau to ease Noah back in after off-season surgery, Thibodeau  ignored him and played Noah heavy minutes regardless. That probably restricted Noah’s’ ability to recover from the injury properly and thus led him to having a career low season in many categories. Hoiberg will most likely be bringing Noah off the bench this year but expect Noah to be in the game during crutch time in the 4th quarter for his defense and energy. Noah coming off the bench is great because it adds to the Bulls bench depth and will limit his minutes during the regular season. Hopefully he stays healthy all season and is fresh for the playoffs because a healthy and spirited Noah will be huge for the Bulls to make a deep playoff run.

Derrick Rose is the most important player on the Bulls roster because without him, the Bulls have no chance at winning an NBA title. Rose was great in the 2015 playoffs after returning from his third knee operation and showed that explosion and speed that we all love to see. Thibodeau had a bad habit of keeping his starters in the game during the late stages of the 4th quarter even though the fate of the game had already been decided. Everyone knows that when Rose tore his acl against the Sixers in the playoffs, the Bulls were up by double digits and the game was almost over. So why have Rose in the game in the first place? Thibodeau should have learned from that event but clearly did not. There were plenty of games this past season where it was the 4th quarter, the Bulls were clearly going to win the game, but guys like Butler and Noah were still on the court, and it was perplexing.

Thibodeau played Rose an average of 30 minutes a game last year which is not bad but could be a bit lower since back up guard Aaron Brooks is a proven scorer off the bench. Rose needs to take over in the 4th quarter of games and he did that in the 2014-15 season, so his minutes should be spread out through the first 3 quarters of games. Hoiberg will surely do a better job of managing Rose’s back to back game minutes better than Thibodeau did, and hopefully this leads to a year in which Rose is healthy for all 82 games.

Taj Gibson is coming off ankle surgery and might not be ready to start the season. Once he comes back, Hoiberg must be patient with Gibson, and ease him back in. Taj is a vital piece to the Bulls so they can’t rush him back to the floor until his ankle is 100%. Taj played all season on torn ligaments in his ankle and I commend him for being a warrior and battling through the injury. It was great to hear that he got the surgery so that he can be healthy for the upcoming year and he will be a huge part of the Bulls success.

I expect Hoiberg to play Doug McDermott a lot this year because he is familiar with Doug’s game and knows his strengths and weaknesses. Doug is a pure shooter which is perfect for the new offense that Hoiberg is installing with the Bulls. Thibodeau didn’t trust McDermott at all last year and Doug saw little to no playing time during the season. Sources say that didn’t sit well with management, as the team drafted McDermott to play right away because of his ability to shoot, something the Bulls needed. McDermott should see the floor a lot this year along with the other young Bulls players to take the load off the core players. Gasol, Noah and Gibson are all in their 30’s. Rose and Butler are still young but Rose has had three knee surgeries and Butler was second in the 2013-14 season in minutes played, and as mentioned above, was number one this past season.

Guys like McDermott, Nikola Mirotic, Snell and rookie Bobby Portis should see a lot of playing time this year and need to take advantage of it. The Bulls starters need to be fresh for the playoffs so limiting their regular season minutes is key. Hoiberg hired Jim Boylen, an assistant coach from the San Antonio Spurs to work on his staff, so hopefully the Bulls will manage their players minutes as efficiently as the Spurs staff has done for years.

The Bulls have all the pieces to win an NBA title and have a new, offensive minded coach to lead them. As long as their minutes are managed properly throughout the regular season, and the players are fresh for the playoffs, there is no reason why the Bulls can’t compete for an NBA title.

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